GM seeking for bids for its powertrain plant in Strasbourg

General Motors Co. is seeking for bids for its powertrain plant in Strasbourg, France. GM is making the second attempt in four years to sell the plant amid hopes that the factory will continue to operate with the current workforce, supply base and customers. GM, which entered an alliance with France's PSA/Peugeot-Citroen last February, said last Wednesday that it has hired advisers to handle the sale of the facility in eastern France, which has about a thousand workers.

In a statement, GM said that it prefers potential buyers that will continue its existing operations. At the start of the economic crisis in 2008, GM had tried to sell the Strasbourg plant, which rolls out the automatic gearboxes for its own brands and BMW.

In 2010, GM had bought back the plant for one euro. This is the year that came after its own short bankruptcy, after the company charged with liquidating GM assets wasn’t able to locate a buyer.

Under the terms of the buy-back, workers agreed to freeze wages for two years in exchange for job guarantees. Last Wednesday, GM spokesman Jim Cain said that there are commitments in place to continue manufacturing the transmissions for the next several years. Last year, the Strasbourg plant built 280,000 six-speed transmissions, primarily for vehicle assembly outside Europe.

Today, manual transmissions have become rare in mainstream cars and are more commonly found in performance cars within the $20,000 to $40,000 range. However, the selection of affordable, three-pedal performance...